Last Sunday marked the 93rd anniversary of the Bolshevik revolution, which used to be the major official holiday in the Soviet Union and remains a date about which the Russians have mixed feelings, but only 9 percent see it as a catastrophe (www.levada.ru, November 2).... MORE

Investigators in Kabardino-Balkaria said today (November 5) that two hunters found dead yesterday (November 4) may have died at the hands of members of “illegal armed formations.” The bodies of two residents of the city of Nalchik –69-year-old Vycheslav Kiriloyuk and 64-year-old Valdislav Revazov– were... MORE

Since the beginning of fall 2010 a tide of kidnappings of young people accused of participating in the armed underground has swept Ingushetia. On October 22, three young Ingush were arrested in three different places of this troubled republic in Russia’s North Caucasus region. On... MORE

This week Russian President, Dmitry Medvedev, after completing a state visit to Vietnam, landed on the southern Kurile Island of Kunashir (Japanese name –Kunashiri) which has been under Russian rule since 1945. Japan claims the so-called Northern Territories of the Southern Kuriles: the Habomai islets,... MORE

The Kremlin has repeatedly pledged to implement sizable infrastructure development projects in Mongolia. However, new Russian projects in this neighboring state have tended to be slow to materialize. In an apparent bid to speed up joint projects, in early October Russia and Mongolia moved to... MORE

On October 18, hundreds of people blocked a federal highway near Magas, the capital of Ingushetia. The protestors demanded that the government put an end to abductions in the republic. Dzhamaleil Gagiev’s disappearance from the village of Ali-Yurt in Ingushetia on October 14, and the... MORE

The ill-omens continue accumulating for NATO in the run-up the Alliance’s summit. Among the adverse trends (which NATO and the United States are unwilling to discuss) is the temptation of some West European governments and arms producers to sell modern military equipment to Russia. This... MORE

One distinguishing hallmark of Russian defense reform is the unpredictable and apparently indiscriminate manner in which it is implemented. This approach leaves officers wondering about their future and where the next “surprise” might surface. The latest “victim” in this unstoppable process was the GRU Spetsnaz... MORE

The Russian-Polish gas agreements (“Russian-Polish Gas Agreement Leaves Key Questions Unanswered,” EDM, November 2) mark an unprecedented turnabout by the Polish government, siding with Russia and Gazprom despite the European Commission’s cautionary advice (EDM, October 4, 5). The Commission’s concerns are of a legal and... MORE

On October 29 in Warsaw, the Polish government and state gas company signed long-term supply and transit agreements with Russia, despite strong cautionary advice and warnings of legal action by the European Commission (EDM, October 4, 5). The agreements prolong and entrench Polish dependence on... MORE